The Castries

It's not actually celery juice at all, but "Golden Apple" juice. I actually enjoy it a lot now and drink several glasses a day.

The training has been going well, if not a little tiring at times (I haven't sat through 8 hours of classes a day since High School). But it's tolerable and I'm actually learning some interesting stuff about cultures, safety and security, and many other things. Today we got a break from the regular sitting in hard wood chairs all day, and got to leave the compound. We got on a bus around 8:30 and were taken to Castries, which is St. Lucia's capital city, and where Peace Corps has their regional offices. After a few hours of more training sessions, we were given a lunch that was basically a tortilla with curry and chicken inside of it. I forget what it was called, but it was delicious (except for the chicken bones). We received some shots and vaccines, then were sent out on our own for a scavenger hunt throughout Castries. We divided into teams of about four people. My team was Saira, Maggie, Julie Ann, and myself. It seemed that a lot of the exercise was not just to get to know Castries, but to figure stuff out on our own. Earlier in the day we were given two weeks of "walk around money" (which really doesn't amount to much, maybe $2.50 a day), but it also included transportation money, along with many other expenses. We were told we had to use some of our money to get a bus, go to downtown Castries, and find things on our list. Such things included the library, an ice cream shop, a Cathedral, and the market etc..



It was kind of intimidating getting on the busses at first. They're not really busses as much as they are vans. Very crowded vans. We managed to find a stop, and get on a bus when it came. We weren't too sure where the bus was going, but when we asked someone, they kindly informed us it was going to the correct destination. Eventually we made it down town, gave our money ($1.50 EC) to the bus driver, and got off. We had basic tourist maps of Castries and were able to navigate our way around town fairly well. We found everything on the list so we wandered the streets for a while afterwards. Around 6:30pm we met up with the rest of EC80 and got back on the bus (which is another story in its self, which I should be reminded to tell some time) and headed back to the retreat for dinner. Everyone was pretty exhausted, but it was a good exhausted. It was nice being out for the day.

Staging and St. Lucia

Right now I am in St. Lucia. It's been an exciting journey getting this far. On Sunday night my parents drove me to Chicago O'hare. It was sad saying goodbye, but it was still exciting to leave. I arrived shortly after in Miami, where I met Kelly, another future volunteer (I say future volunteer because we are still trainees). Interestingly, Kelly not only was on the same flight to Miami as I was, but we even arrived at the airport, and checked in at the same time I did.

Once we were in Miami we found our way to the shuttles to take us to the Hotel. The shuttle missed us the first time, so we had to wait another twenty minutes for the next shuttle to arrive. Eventually we made it to the hotel, where we met other future volunteers. We couldn't check into our rooms yet, so we were just hanging around the lobby and chatting. After a good seafood lunch at a nearby restaurant, we got our rooms and then checked in to registration. It was fun meeting some of the people I've been communicating with on facebook finally.

After registration we began our staging event, which is pretty much an orientation covering our aspirations for Peace Corps, risk management, and how we were going to get to St. Lucia. It went well and we got to know the other people. After staging we found dinner at a Latin restaurant across the street, then hit the sack. The next morning was going to be early and the start of a long day.

August 25th I woke up at 4:30am because checkout was at 5:15. I woke up without much struggle and made checkout early. We all headed back to the airport to catch our flight to St. Lucia. It was an easy an uneventful flight. Once we arrived in St. Lucia we were met by the Peace Corps staff for the Eastern Caribbean, and brought to a retreat center that is somewhere very far away (up and down very twisty and scary roads.) The retreat center is a beautiful place with a great view of a nearby bay. We got our rooms (I got a single. nice!) did some basic orientation and then ate dinner. Dinner was a delicious vegetable soup and barbecue chicken. The dinner was served by nuns since the retreat center is in some sort of catholic mission center. I don't know much about that. For drinks we had this interesting (and eventually enjoyable) juice that we were sure came from something like celery. It took some getting used to, but I started to like it. I have a feeling we'll get a lot of it this week, so I'll love it eventually, i'm sure.

After dinner we were done for the night, and able to relax after several long days with little sleep. Because were much closer to the equator, the days here are much shorter. I believe sunrise is at 6 or 6:30am, and sunset is about 6:15-6:30. I'm not sure if my tiredness comes from the change in daylight, or nonstop excitement I've had for the past few days. Either way, I'll sleep well tonight.

11 hours to go

Typically I am a last minute packer, where I don't really take care of things until right before I leave. And even then I'm running around the house throwing things that I might need into my bag. However, right now I am actually ready to go with everything packed. And my plane doesn't even leave for another 11 hours (6am).

I started packing this past week, which seems to have helped me be more prepared. Packing wasn't all I've had to do though. Taking care of a bunch of paperwork for my staging and saying goodbye to everyone was also a priority.

People are always asking me if I'm nervous or excited. For some reason I'm really not very nervous and I don't really know why. I usually try to take things in stride, doing the best that I can, but realizing that when the unexpected happens, you just have to work with what you have. I feel as if that attitude has helped me make the transition smoothly so far. I may not be nervous, but I am very excited. It's something I've been prepping for the past two years (when I first opened up my Peace Corps application) in some way or another and it is all finally coming into place.

The reality of the trip is really hitting me now, and I can see things progressing minute by minute. The reality that I am so far prepared for this journey has also hit me, and I am ready for all the change that is going to come.

Here is how things are going to go down:
Tomorrow morning my parents are driving to Chicago O'Hare, leaving home at 2am (real early). My flight leaves for Miami at 6:00am and arrives in Miami at 9:50. From there I will find my way to the Crown Plaza at Miami airport. I should have a little time to kill then. At 2:00, registration for my staging will begin and I don't know exactly what will happen with that. At 3:00 I can check into my room if it isn't ready yet (I'm supposed to check into my room before I register for staging, but check in doesn't start until after registration. Figure that one out). From 3:00-7:00 we will have training on the Peace Corps background, anxiety and aspirations for service, risk management (woohoo!), and more departure stuff.

On Tuesday morning we have check out at 5:15am, leave the hotel at 5:45am, then our flight leaves for St. Lucia at 10:35am.

So far it sounds like stuff I can handle.

Here's the deal:

Here's the deal, On Monday August 24th I am leaving for two years for the Peace Corps. I'll be going down to St. Kitts and Nevis in the Eastern Caribbean to work in Youth Development.

On Monday I will be flying down to Miami for my staging event. I'll be there for less than 24 hours. After that, myself and approximately 24 others will fly from Miami to St. Lucia for a number of days and then we'll all go to our separate countries.

Yes, I am excited. No I am not packed yet. Yes I am mentally prepared so far. Yes I know I am lucky to be in the Caribbean for the next two years. No it is not a vacation.

I have a lot of packing to do and have completed very little of it. The Peace Corps offers some general guidelines as suggestions for packing, most of which can be found here: http://www.peacecorpswiki.org/Packing_list_for_the_Eastern_Caribbean So far I have taken an inventory of what they suggest compared with what I have. I'll be doing a little shopping tomorrow with my sister to pick up a few things I still need. Other than the basics such as clothes and other essential things, I will be bring along my guitar and computer. I'm slightly worried about those things taking up too much space (the guitar will be brought as one of my carry-on items). So we'll see how it works out. I've already decided to leave my nice camera and equipment at home for now, until it can be insured... that will save a decent amount of space.

I'm feeling like I'm prepared, but there is still a lot to do.

Kismet to kittsmet

kis⋅met

 /ˈkɪzmɪt, -mɛt, ˈkɪs-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kiz-mit, -met, kis-]

Show IPA –noun fate; destiny.